Digital Hollywood: The AI & Entertainment Summit
Tuesday, July 21st, 2026
5– 5:50 PM Eastern Time Zone
Session I: A Virtual Event
State by State: The Legislators May Decide AI’s Future: California, Colorado, New York, Illinois, Tennessee etc.
Federal AI legislation remains gridlocked — so the states are moving on their own, and the landscape is becoming impossible to ignore. California, Colorado, New York, Illinois and Tennessee have each taken a different approach to regulating artificial intelligence, and the differences are as revealing as the regulations themselves. Tennessee's Elvis Act targets deepfakes and voice cloning directly, protecting recording artists and performers from synthetic identity theft. California's expansive legislation reaches from deepfake technology and data privacy all the way to the regulation of frontier AI model training. Illinois extends the conversation into employee discrimination, voice recordings and robocalls. Colorado and New York are staking out their own ground on algorithmic accountability and consumer protection. Five states, five philosophies, five very different visions of where AI regulation is heading — and forty-five more waiting in the wings. With fifty states potentially moving in fifty different directions, this session may be the most important canary in the coal mine the industry has right now.
Speakers:
Christopher Kenneally, Award-Winning Podcast Host/Producer, Moderator
Paul Sweeting, founder and principal, Concurrent Media Strategies, LLC
Lauren Fried, Partner, Loeb & Loeb, LLP
Andrew Gilden, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School
Erik Passoja, Professional Actor & Digital Identity Expert
Matthew Asbell,
Partner, Lippes Mathias LLP
Diana Colella is executive vice president of Autodesk’s Entertainment & Media vertical solutions group. In this role, she manages product, strategy and execution for the company’s portfolio servicing the film, TV and games industries. Colella has been with Autodesk for more than 20 years occupying a range of leadership roles, including head of product management and worldwide support. She has extensive experience in strategically transforming business models, creating new product offerings and optimizing processes on a global scale. Most recently, she served as vice president in Autodesk’s Business Strategy and Marketing group, leading the M&E and AutoCAD businesses, which represent more than $1B in annual recurring revenue. In this role, she drove the company’s strategy for digital conversion of non-compliant users and launched One AutoCAD. She is the executive sponsor of the Autodesk Women’s Network.
